Every year I really think "this is going to be the year that we send Christmas cards". Of course every year we don't actually send them, but I've heard many times that "it's the thought that counts"; and so, I guess that's pretty impressive because I've thought a lot about it.
But since there's no actual physical Christmas card, and I might not even get around to writing a virtual one (even if I do I could never top the Californication-themed Christmas card of 2013), here is the preamble to a potential but by no means guaranteed virtual Christmas card 2020... [update: it is now New Years Eve so this will actually be the Christmas Card / Year-end Card].
2020 was a fun year for the Pemulis Family. For the first time ever we started the year off as a family of four and we were lucky enough to wake up that morning of January 1st safely in Canadian farmland with zero knowledge that a pandemic that was already getting underway in the Far East would upend all of our lives in just a few short months.
I had recently returned from a successful business trip to California where my colleague and I spent half the time working and half the time discovering the whiskey joints of the Mission district in San Francisco. We attended a San Jose Sharks game, took the commuter jet up to Seattle as all the cool tech bros do, and ate fried chicken at Patricia's Green with sparkling rosé that cost $25 a glass (paid for by the company, natch, as they will never run out of money... haha kind of a foreshadow for all you readers out there -- and to be honest the company only paid for part of it). How were we to know that not long from those times my colleague would be laid off along with half of the rest of the office and there would be zero more flights to California (or anywhere) for a long time to come...
Before the pandemic got underway, however, we spent a wonderful week at the Hotel Fuente de la Higuera in the Ronda region of Spain in February. You might have read about this very trip in some greater detail on this blog. In March Heinrich had his first birthday and we secured a place for him at his future Krippe. These are very exciting and important breakthroughs for parents with kids in the 21st century, by the way.
Observing my calendar we basically did nothing from March to July but at the very start of July we managed to escape our confinement and "unwound" (not really due to kids, but overall it was still nice) at a cottage in the Austrian mountains. Our ultra trail race at the Zugspitz was cancelled but in early July we used our "rain check" to sign up to hopefully try again next year.
In August, even though somehow it's not on our calendar (what an oversight), we spent a week in Italy again to "unwind" (not really due to kids) and celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. Twelve years!? Can you believe it? Insane how the time goes by. And because 12 is such an obvious connection to the dial of a watch, Joelle got me a very nice watch to commemorate such a momentous occasion that I wear with pride.
The rest of the year somehow just kind of burned right by and here I am finishing this up on the evening of December 30th (ok so it's not quite NYE but we're super close) dreaming of the arrival of the great vaccine. It's been hard not being in Canada for Christmas time but some parts of being here have of course been nice too. We look forward to a hopefully different outcome next year and for sure I will write a Christmas Card about it.
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